Shelter
by The Raven and the Fox
Summary: Thunder, crushes, shirts, and a bus shelter. SasuNaru.


**Summary:** Thunder, crushes, shirts, and a bus shelter. SasuNaru.

**Words:** 2119

**Contains:** a bit of swearing, a fair amount of banter, homosexuality

**Author's note:** When I write these days I always get caught up in getting everything right, which makes me ditch the project and feel bad about myself. So I said to myself, stop caring so much. Just _write_ something. I'm going to take writing more casually for a while. Two Face was literally a part of my life. I have to admit I still haven't quite found the same spark in writing, and I've been feeling pretty lost lately. In an attempt to write something, anything, I whipped up this quick fic inspired by a piece of art I did.

This is a drabble in the most relaxed sense of the word. (I don't mean to offend those who take drabbling seriously.) It's short for a complete fic of mine, and I didn't polish it as much as I might usually do. But I hope you enjoy it all the same.

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><p>Naruto glanced at the sky, worry reflected in his eyes. The clouds were gathering, darkening, and the wind had picked up to almost violent speeds, whipping leaves off of trees and tugging at him as though ushering him onwards. He wasn't sure, but he thought he might have felt a drop of rain on his arm. <em>Dammit.<em> He still had twenty minutes to walk. He could only hope that the clouds could hold onto their precipitation until he made it.

Of course, no such luck. Within minutes huge drops were splashing onto the pavement. Naruto broke into a run, but he was soaked before he could go five steps as the sky split. Still he ran, the cold drops stinging his bare skin, water streaming into his hair, getting in his eyes, filling his shoes.

Shelter – there had to be shelter somewhere. An alley doorway, or a nearby park – even a tree might do until it let up a little.

Squinting through the torrent, Naruto spotted a bus shelter. Perfect. He hurried into it just as a clap of thunder rumbled across the city, shaking the ground. Naruto flinched, flattening himself against the glass wall of the shelter. He stayed there, frozen, until the rumbling went away. Then he flumped onto the bench, panting heavily.

"Oh, it's you."

He glanced over and nearly jumped out of his seat. Sasuke was standing in the corner of the bus shelter, looking bored and criminally dry. Naruto hadn't even seen him, so desperate had he been to get out of the rain.

"The hell?" Naruto said, once he could spare any breath. "Sasuke? How are you not soaked?"

"I was waiting for the bus before it started raining," said Sasuke. "Did you not check the forecast, moron?"

"I forgot my umbrella," he snapped automatically. He wasn't about to admit he hadn't checked the weather before heading out.

Sasuke made a _tch_ noise, rolling his eyes. "Idiot."

"I didn't come here to be insulted, bastard." Naruto peeled off his shirt. It was dripping an almost constant stream of rainwater. He wrung it out, grimacing, then tossed it on the bench next to him before trying to wipe some water off his torso. His socks squished uncomfortably in his shoes, so he removed and wrung those too, leaving them with his shirt and putting his shoes back on. His toes were getting really cold, and he kind of wished he could wring his jeans as well. At least the only thing he had with him was his wallet. If he hadn't forgotten to bring his phone as well, it'd probably have stopped working by now. He leaned forward and tried to press some water out of his hair, then rubbed it violently.

"Oi, cut it out," Sasuke growled. "I don't want your rainwater, blockhead."

"I don't want it either! I'd use my shirt but as you can see, it's just a _little _bit utterly useless as a towel at the moment."

Sasuke didn't reply to this. Naruto thought he'd won one of their innumerable bickering sessions for once, but then something landed on top of his head with a flump. He grabbed it and pulled it off to see Sasuke's shirt in his hands. He looked over. Sasuke stood with his arms crossed over his bare chest, pointedly looking away.

"Sasuke?"

"Use it as a towel," said Sasuke curtly. "You look like a wet dog."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Sasuke, this is your _shirt_."

"Think I don't know that? Do you want to use it or can I have it back?"

"Don't offer it if you didn't want to give it in the first place!"

But Naruto used it anyway. He cleared the water from his face, not failing to notice that was still warm and smelled just like Sasuke. Then he wiped down his torso and arms, then his hair. He used the dripping as an excuse to wipe his face again, discreetly breathing in Sasuke's scent. It smelled like… home. An alternate home, a place he visited so often he knew it as well as his own apartment. It smelled like every time Sasuke showed up at his place, bearing food or video games or just himself. It smelled like so many fights, punches thrown, kicks delivered, grappling and shouting and blood and bruises and the feel of a body he knew so well. It smelled like when Sasuke had been hit by a car and Naruto had thought he'd died; it smelled like when Naruto had fallen out of a tree and broken his leg and Sasuke had carried him to the hospital. It smelled like comfort.

The sound of a vehicle approaching made them both look up. The bus pulled up to the station. Naruto glanced sideways, but Sasuke didn't move. The bus driver looked at them, then drove on.

"I thought you were waiting for the bus?" said Naruto.

"You have my shirt," Sasuke replied simply.

"Oh." Naruto couldn't remember if it was legal to get on a bus shirtless. He knew malls were prohibited, in any case. "Where were you headed?"

"Your place."

"…Oh. You didn't even check if I was home first?"

"You said you weren't doing anything today," said Sasuke with a scowl. "I guess I should know by now how unpredictable of a moron you are."

Naruto was about to make a retort, but the sky flickered and he sat up abruptly, eyes darting, alert. Then he ducked his head and gripped the armrest of the bench hard enough to make his hand shake. Thunder pealed moments afterwards. Naruto pulled his feet up onto the bench, sitting huddled up and shivering.

"Fuck, I'm cold," Naruto hissed, hugging himself tightly.

"Wear the shirt," said Sasuke. He was getting goosebumps himself, but he wasn't chalking up Naruto's shivering to coincidence.

"It's yours. You can have it back."

"I don't want to wear it after you've rubbed it all over yourself," Sasuke lied, with a scowl of disgust. "Wear it. When the rain lets up, I'll go wash it at your place."

"Did I say you were invited?" said Naruto, though he pulled the shirt on. "I was headed out somewhere, asshole!"

"You're still gonna go out now that you look like that? Where were you going, anyway?"

"None of your business," Naruto huffed. He pulled his shoes off and held his toes, trying to warm them up with his almost equally cold hands.

"You weren't visiting Sakura again, were you?" asked Sasuke.

Naruto fired up instantly. "So what if I was? She's a friend of ours."

"Going to the market first, I presume, to get her a gift?"

"Yeah, so? I can bring gifts to friends, can't I?"

"I don't see you bringing me gifts." Sasuke glanced outside as another flash of lightning lit up the sky, followed in a few seconds by a slightly more distant roll of thunder.

"You're different. I _tolerate_ you," said Naruto tersely, also looking outside. "Anyway, who says Sakura won't return my feelings one day? It's possible. She could—"

"Give it up, moron!" Sasuke snapped. "You know she's not interested in you that way and she never will be!"

Naruto whipped around, surprised by Sasuke's outburst. Sasuke stared at him, eyes ablaze, then quickly averted his gaze with a _hmph_.

Naruto frowned. This wasn't the first time by far that he'd attempted to court Sakura, nor that he'd hidden it from Sasuke. And of course he'd never had the delusion that Sasuke didn't know, but he felt it was important to keep up the façade anyway. The three of them had been through thick and thin together, and while Sakura had more or less gotten over her crush on Sasuke, Naruto refused to let go of his. Sakura had grown even prettier over the years – and stronger, and smarter – and Naruto didn't know what he'd do without his trio. His best friends. Sasuke had never appeared romantically inclined, so Naruto figured that even if he did start going out with Sakura, nothing much would change. At least, he didn't want it to. He knew Sasuke so well, and Sasuke knew him perhaps even better.

Was that the problem? An imbalance in their relationships? Sakura was falling away from them – she had her female friends as well, and since moving on from Sasuke she'd found other boys to speak and flirt with. She talked about them to Naruto and Sasuke like they weren't guys as well, like… like they weren't even – Naruto didn't know. Boyfriend material, or something. Naruto always put up with it. It used to hurt a lot, when she'd swoon over the new kid in class or the cute guy at work. So he redoubled his efforts, visiting her, bringing gifts, taking her out. But try as he might, their "dates" never felt like anything more than hanging out between friends. And he always felt guilty, so guilty, excluding Sasuke…

"You're thinking about her," Sasuke mumbled.

"What's your problem?" Naruto retorted at once. "What are you, jealous?"

The silence that followed was more telling than anything Sasuke could have said.

Naruto glanced outside as the sky flickered again. Goddammit, he didn't want to be here anymore.

"Naruto?"

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, who was watching the ground very carefully, a conflicted look on his face.

"What?" said Naruto.

"I was thinking, if – if the rain lets up, or maybe tomorrow if it doesn't – did you want to head to the market together?"

"What, so I can buy you a gift?" Naruto teased. Sasuke couldn't help it: he glanced up, and their eyes met. And in that instant, Naruto saw everything.

When the lightning struck this time, the thunder followed almost immediately, deafeningly close. Naruto leapt out of his seat, slamming his back against the glass, eyes wide in terror. "Uh – I should go," he stammered in barely a squeak. He edged towards the opening of the bus shelter. "I'm gonna—"

"Naruto, it's still pouring out there," said Sasuke. "And your clothes – where are you going?"

"Home!"

"You can't walk home from here, idiot—"

Naruto tried to bolt, but Sasuke lunged and grabbed his wrist, then wrenched him back inside the bus shelter as the thunder roared once more. Instantly, instinctively, Naruto flung his arms around Sasuke, burying his face in Sasuke's neck. Sasuke was there at once, holding Naruto tightly. He could feel the blond shaking in his arms, hear the muffled sobs Naruto was trying to hold back.

"How come you never told me?" Sasuke murmured. "That you're afraid of thunder?"

"You think I'd tell _you_?" Naruto retorted, voice shaky. "You'd just make fun of me."

"…Sorry," he whispered. He stroked Naruto's hair gently. In the few minutes they stood there, the rain began to ease, the sky lightening somewhat. Naruto's frantic pulse calmed down and the shaking stopped, and he pulled away from Sasuke to look into his eyes, though his arms still stayed around Sasuke's shoulders, their faces very close.

"You don't really have a crush on Sakura anymore, do you?" asked Sasuke.

Naruto hesitated. "I guess not," he said finally. "If I think about it. I mean, I love her, definitely."

"Why did you cling to it?"

"Because – because it made sense. Because it was easy. I can't – you're so… you're such a bastard," he exclaimed, pulling Sasuke into a tight hug once more. "But I couldn't love you any other way."

Sasuke couldn't help but smile. "And you wouldn't be the same dumb blond if you weren't so stupid."

"Asshole," Naruto muttered. But Sasuke pulled out of the hug just far enough to kiss Naruto gently on the lips, and Naruto couldn't hide his smile after that.

The sun came out in a couple of minutes, and another bus showed up. Sasuke had spare change, so they got on, Naruto with his jeans soaking, still wearing Sasuke's shirt; Sasuke holding on (with mild disgust) to Naruto's shirt and socks. Though the bus was pretty empty, Naruto didn't want to sit and get any of the chairs wet, so he stood in front of Sasuke's seat, and every now and then they exchanged glances and snickered. They got off at the stop near Naruto's place and walked home, hand in hand.

"You know, Sakura knows," said Sasuke matter-of-factly.

"Knows? Knows what?"

"About us."

"What 'us?' It just happened! How can she know before we've even told her?"

"There's always been an 'us.' You were just too dense to realize it."

"What, and you weren't?"

"Sakura figured it out before I did," Sasuke admitted, "but I've known for ages."

Naruto pouted. "Why does no one _tell_ me these things?"

Sasuke had to laugh.

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><p>I really miss writing fanfiction. I've been doing a lot of original stuff lately, and realizing how much more work is involved in creating new, coherent characters and settings. I take Naruto and Sasuke for granted – I understand them; they are a part of me and I don't have to make anything up. But I can, if I want to. I feel a lot more lenient about them than I do about my own characters, partly because of the diversity of fanfiction I used to read. For them, anything can happen. For my own characters, there is one canon, and only the canon, and I won't divert from that. No AUs or OOC stories. What I write is law, history, and fact. It's kind of… stifling. But then sometimes creativity only shows itself when limits are placed.<p>

Ah… don't mind me. I'm pretty crazy right now, heh. I have a question for you guys. If I were to start an R+F blog, would you follow it? I'd talk about fandom- and fanfic-related things, as well as writing, art, whatever. Topics may include such things as the difference between fanfiction and original fiction, the psychology of characters I analyze, the process through which I write. I'd also like to talk about Two Face, if anyone's interested in listening, and maybe share tidbits of stories I'm working on or have dropped. I always love listening to audio commentary and reading author's notes and artist's comments. Once when I was writing an essay on a movie, I watched it with the commentary on and was disappointed in how little they really explained about the movie itself. Does anyone else find interest in that sort of thing? Would you follow an R+F blog? I'm totally open to suggestions, discussions, and the like. Drop me a review and/or vote in the poll on my profile.

Thanks for reading.

R+F


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